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Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Amazon seeks permission to fly drones

Amazon sent a letter to the FAA recently requesting permission to start flying drones for the purpose of testing.

The FAA isn't prepared for Amazon to use the drones for the delivery of packages yet, but the FAA has been directed to allow drones to be flown for testing purposes.

Amazon's "Vice President of global public policy"
Paul Misener, stated that they are already on their eighth and ninth generation
drones.

Amazon has been researching drone use
in Seattle but it needs special permission to start testing the drones
for outdoor use.

Amazon hopes it's "Amazon Prime Air" program, will be able to deliver items to customers "in 30 minutes or less".

Amazon's drones will be able to carry 5 pound packages at 50 miles an hour.

Five pounds doesn't sound all that impressive, however Amazon says that 5 pound packages cover 86% of all the items they ship.

"Many were originally skeptical of Bezos' drone plan, since the announcement first came just before the 2013 holiday season, leading many to think Bezos was just trying to put Amazon in people's heads." -Jill Scharr for Tom's Guide

But as Jill states in her article, Amazon has made great strides and they are quite serious about having drones deliver packages.

So what do you think? As interesting as this all is, it does pose questions.

1) is this just another way to offer less jobs for humans, as robotics and computers take over even more paying jobs?

2) how safe will air travel be if thousands or millions of drones fill the air?